Electric Aircraft

Dear Colleagues,

Ever-increasing energy demand and rising fuel prices have motivated aircraft industries to develop alternative power sources for future aircraft. In the aviation sector, the requirements of flight reliability, low noise-emission levels, reduction in the dependence on fossil fuels, requirements of lower costs and lower weight, and longer life cycles, increase the complexity of the overall system and lead manufacturers to introduce major breakthroughs and innovations. Hybrid electric propulsion and all-electric propulsion for future aircraft are currently popular fields in the aircraft industry and are forming the basis for future commercial aircraft designs. Hybrid electric propulsion systems are composed of a networked set of gas turbines and batteries, while in all electric propulsion systems batteries are the only source of propulsive power on aircraft. Current battery technologies pose the most serious limitations to the development of all-electric and more-electric aircraft. However, rapid strides are being made in the evolution of battery technology and, for this reason, most aircraft industries are planning to introduce either more-electric or all-electric powered aircraft within the next two decades. Electric aircraft will pose new problems related to the general aircraft architecture, geometry and shape, battery, motor, and propulsion system design, aerodynamics, drag reduction and boundary layer control, aircraft performance, stability and control, the design of flight controllers, optimum structural design, and a host of other issues. In this Special Issue, we hope bring together a number of current aspects of electric aircraft that are being extensively researched within the aerospace community.

Dr. Ranjan Vepa
Guest Editor

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